Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Fists of fury

Today I decided to take my first steps in my survival mode Minecraft journey. While indeed there is a multiplayer option, I'm going to start out with the single player for now, just to taste what's possible. I'm taking the step to handicap myself to an extent, by not digging too deep in the wealth of wiki's and guides out there for the game. I've only skimmed enough to get a basic understanding of crafting. How long before I break down and study every facet of the game in order to exploit things to the maximum remains to be seen.

I went ahead and generated a new world and was greeted by a bevy of hills. Immediately my mind sprung into imagining the wealth of minerals and such buried beneath, so I went on my way. But first, I had business to attend to. Punching business. Like most of you, the first thing I do when I find myself in a strange environment is to start punching trees.

I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok...

With my tree punching netting me a bit of wood, I went about scouting for possible habitats. Because one of the things I do know is that come nightfall, I don't want to be caught off guard when the monsters come out. Getting up on higher ground I noticed some good looking candidates in the distance. For the time being, I chose the little cave not far from me. It was bound to have some stone and be more defensible than trying my luck out in the open.

Home sweet home

My hunch was correct, and after a little more wood punching, I poked my head inside the cave. It wasn't much, but it looked like it had some decent stone deposits inside. So after setting up my workbench I made some ramshackle tools and starting mining. I'll admit my lack of knowledge about what items make what started to show a bit, but I pressed on. I found some flint a little deeper down as I was mining, so I considered making a bit of fire, but I was alright in the dark so far, so I collected some stone and made a furnace to start refining some things.

Soon enough it was night, and I quickly decided to cobble together a wooden wall and door to give me at least the illusion of security. I took the time to mine a bit deeper and use the furnace a bit more. Caution was the name of my game, as recklessly mining into a pit of lava wasn't the sort of thing I was too keen on. By morning I had some materials I hadn't a whole lot of clue what to do with, and some stone tools and a sword. With daylight also came exploration and animal cruelty. I wanted some new threads to go with my new cave home, and the poor blocky creatures that inhabited this world would have to suffer to appease that.

The death blow

And with that, real life called and I cut short my digital expedition for the day. I'm aware I didn't accomplish much, but it's a start.